The Final Chapter

Hello people. I imagine this will be my last update before i return
home. Much has changed since my previous email. I am absolutely loving
it here now. Not enough to want to stay forever but i will be looking
into applying for my 2nd year visa when i get home. But i want to see
how i feel back in england first. I miss everything so much and as i
have a flight that is paid for i may as well use it otherwise it's
completely wasted. I met a guy a couple of weeks ago. Just in the pub
but he's a horse dentist and does one of the local boy's horses. Been
talking to him since and he lives down by margeret river. i'm meeting
my friend laura in perth when i leave here so we can tour down there.
So he said we can stay with him. Which would be awesome as we can just
hire a car rather than a camper. Which will be cheaper. And where he
lives is in the middle of everything so we can just do day trips. The
farthest place we would go is about 3 hours drive but we could do over
night there. It's all very exciting. I can't wait to get on the road.
But i really think i'm gonna miss this pub. If i was to come back i
think i would come straight back here first for 2 months as i know i'd
get work and could get a good amount of money behind me so i can go
and see some of the coast that haven't seen. Western australia is
definately the place for me. And i think i'm gonna have a big shock
when i come back to chelmsford surrounded by drunken teenagers again.
And just generally more than 20people! Ha ha. My friend aly who was
working here has left now. She's still in town staying with one of the
locals till she gets a new job. But i have been promoted to her room.
So i have a tv, dvd, double bed, air con, and a proper place to hang
clothes up on hangers! I'm even getting new sheets! I'm treating
myself as the sheets here are horrible! And i'm donating them to one
of the local boys when i leave. Ha ha. I now have $2700 in my savings
account! Woo woo. So i hope to have about 5000 when i leave! Who
woulda thunk it?! Alice rath managing to save that much. It's easy
just put me in a place where there's nothing to buy except alcohol! Ha
ha. But it's good cos then i have money to live on when i get home
till i get a job and to get a little car or bike. Or if i decide to
come back i can pay for my flight! So many decisions to make and i
keep having days where i realise i'm coming home in 8 weeks and i get
a bit scared! But i'm also really excited! Cannot wait to see my
niece! Hope she likes me! I'm hoping that before i leave i'll get to
go in a proper road train (lorry with 3 trailers) i've been in a truck
with 2 trailers which was pretty cool, just picking up and delivering
wheat! All the farmers think it's very funny that i live on a wheat
farm at home. Although i found out from farmer paul his is about 100
acres. Whereas the ones here range from 4000 to 50,000! But apparently
our wheat is better as it grows much taller. We had the local horse
races on saturday. It's a big day here. Normally get about five
thousand people there. Although this year was only about 2! I had to
work most of the day but went down there in the 'arvo' (yes they
really do say that all the time) in my posh frock with a flower in my
hair. Was really good. Lots of lovely dresses and hats and
fascinators. We basically just sat in the shade and checked everyone
out ha ha. I chose my first horse by name, which lost. And then i got
a tip from a local boy who owns horse races, so i put 25 on it to win.
Cos he said to win not each way. And it came 3rd lol. Doh! I'm
normally so good! I went back down in the evening and they had a live
band so we actually got to dance! I haven't danced in god knows how
long, not since i left sydney! We had a brilliant night. Erm... What
else has happened... Oh we have a new girl. She's lovely, called amy
and she's from leeds. Although not a really strong accent so the
aussie's can understand her. Apart from that nothing. Oh and i got
attacked by a rottweiler the other week. I've never been so scared in
my life. It was a friends dog and was obviously just being protective
when i went to wake her when she was sleeping. He didn't bite or
anything but it was awful. I heard he is just a barker. But then he
bit one of my friends kids the other day so i refuse to go in the
house if the dogs there. Such a beautiful dog too. I think i'll stick
with the big sook of a st bernard that lives at the pub. Anyway... I'm
going to be in L.A. For a few days so if anyone wants anything bought
cheap let me know. Although obviously i am restricted to what i can
carry on the plane. Cannot wait to see you all. Loads of love! X x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x

30th January 2011

Hello everyone,
So I am now in western Australia. Stayed in perth for a few days which
was nice. Very warm and dry.I met a girl when I was in Sydney who's
from canada and had planned on staying in Perth the same length of
time as me so we were gonna look into getting a flat. She is seeing a
guy from perth so is staying at his cousins flat. They offered to pick
me up from the airport and let me stay there for my first night. We
went straight into the city when they picked me up and ended up going
for chinese. Then the next day I had to get to my Hostel which took
forever as getting lost and 26kgs of luggage doesn't go well together.
I dumped  my bags and went for a wander around. Perth is really small
do did that pretty quickly. And its so hot!!
Changed hostels the next night and it Had a pool which was awesome.
Did a little bit of shopping but didn't really sight see. I have a
friend coming out to perth in april so I will save all that stuff to
do with her. I got a job offer at a place called mingenew
(ming-ah-noo) which is about 4 hrs north of perth. Its quite close to
a bigger town called geraldton. I havent been there yet though.
Mingenew consists of a population of 283 and has a post office, a
(small) supermarket, a bakery, a tele centre (think that's phones and
stuff) and a petrol garage. There is a train line but its jist work
trains. Its a farm town, not mining as I had thought. All about wheat,
corn, and canola (rape). Our hotel is the only bar and only restaurant
so iver heard it can get pretty busy.
There's 12 rooms in the main part of the hotel which don't have their
own bathrooms. Then there are 8 units at the back, separate from the
building that have 1 shower room per 2 rooms. But the rooms are nicer
and there's a fridge and tv. They've just had about another 10/15
units delivered that they are doing up. I've heard that in about a
month every room in the hotel should be full. Its a commercial hotel
so all the workers from out of town stay with us.

Then there was a massive storm on Friday night. The lightening was incredible, constant flashing for hours. And we lost power in the whole town. So it lit everything up, then it
started absolutely pouring with rain. The farmers are all very happy
about the rain. We went up the hill to watch the storm. It was just so
cool. The power was still out the next morning and then we found out
the cyclone bianca was gonna hit us at some point that day. We had
100km winds but only got the cusp of the cyclone before it went down
the coast. The power didn't come back on till 4.30pm so we had the pub
closed for the day. Although we've had trouble today cos 2 of our
massive fridges have blown so we've got warm beer. Not good when it's
40degrees and the men want a cold beer. Ha ha. I'm really liking it
here to be honest. It's proper australia. And i could earn enough that
i could stay in oz till the end of my visa in july and buy a flight
home from perth. But i think in a few more weeks i might be dying to
get out. Anyway hope you are all doing well. Love you x x x

18th November 2010

so after m,y birthday i headed to rainbow beach where i went to Fraser island (he largest sand island in the wooorrrllllddd) no phone for 3 days!! check me!!! it was absolutely stunning there and there was one place calle lake mackenzie which was jaw droppingly beautiful!! we had no shower and camped in tents on the beach!! lots of swimming though!1 even saw some wild dingos!! very scary at night time but during the day they seem harmless! haha, so i didnt sleep well the first niht after we saw some around our camp!! we also went to he champagne pools whcih are just pools formed byt rocks and the water stays when the tide is out but the waves crash back over sometimes! very cool! we also did a rainforest walk to another lake which has tea tree oil in it, although i didnt stay in long cos the fish that eat your dead skin were in here and as soon as one touched me i ran out!1 haha. Managed to not get burnt which is pretty awesome and met some pretty amazing people!! we were the A team and we all go to drive the 4 wheel drive car n the island although i waited ill last and i erally didnt like it! like driving on snow! so i swapped after 1/2 hour! back in rainbow beah now and heading to Noosa tomorrow which is where Australia Zoo is (steve irwins zoo) i cannot wait!!! and then onto brisbane to get a job! so thats my excitement of the last few days. check ouy the pics from my cow girl birthday and fraser island - just gorgeous. love you and miss you all so much right now!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxx